


One More Chance XX

by DancingHare



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:05:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancingHare/pseuds/DancingHare
Summary: Death... and rebirth.





	One More Chance XX

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published July 31, 2008

The darkness engulfed him, dragged beneath its depths like the vast cold ocean. Somewhere, far away, he could hear a voice; he could not hear the words so much as feel the echoes of the sound, resonating against his bones. Gradually he became aware of his own body, and with that knowledge came the pain that, oddly, he had not noticed until now. It pressed down on him everywhere, he had the urge to flinch, to try to move away from it, be he could not. It had cornered him, and his limbs did not seem to answer to his will. Yet he could feel the cold earth beneath his fingers, and the warm wetness that confused him for several puzzling moments until he realized that it was blood. His blood, how had it got there? He couldn’t remember, and his head throbbed, feeling his sluggish heartbeat with every pulse.

I’m going to die, Istahn thought, with a curious feeling of detachment.

Shadows moved in his field of vision, and he squinted his eyes tightly closed; they were still there. Beasts perhaps, drawn by the warm coppery tang of his blood. He marveled that he could see the forest in such detail — had that always been the case? He could feel the crushed leaves and pine needles beneath his fingers, see the veins of mineral that ran through the rock beside him. Somewhere above, a strange bird cried in an eerily prescient voice. And yet he felt as if he was not himself, as if this body was something that he was inside, only dimly aware of the pain that clutched it like an animal’s jaws. Istahn supposed that this was shock, but then he wondered if one would be aware of that.

The voices again. He could feel their faint echo in the ground, inside of his skull. His vision blurred, became softer somehow, and he was slipping further. Still, he could not find more than a feeling of disappointment, that he would never see in such unerring clarity again. Did many of his kind die here, on this very ground, defending their city against the onslaught of the Scourge? The thought of it reassured him, that his bones might settle down in the soil and find his kindred there, beneath the quiet forest.

 _Do you hear me?_  
  
He heard the voice that time, and he tried to look and see who had spoken, who was here with him. His failing vision let him see only their shape, silhouetted against the dark sky, wreathed in a corona of moonlight. Had she come for him? Those were horns… weren’t they? A shudder wracked him as the pain coiled around him like a jungle snake, squeezing.

 _I can end your pain,_  said the voice, like silk over his mind. Yes, Istahn wanted to answer, but he could not find his voice. A hand was on his forehead, light and soothing.  _Do you want that? Do you want to live again?_

Istahn could feel his body betraying him, its machinery grinding to a gradual stop. Squinting with concentration, he willed his head to move, a nod: Yes, I want to live.

His breath returned, the pain loosening its clutches on his chest, and the coldness of the air burned his lungs.


End file.
